Wheel Weights

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sapper6fd

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Hey all.

so I've decided I'm going to get into casting my own boolits for the sheer sake of cost and the sense of accomplishment. I managed to score 100 lbs of wheel weights today through a contractors for our company that takes care of our fleet vehicles. In the buckets are mixed clip on and sticky weights. I've gone through them - painstakingly, and removed all Zinc, Steel and Plastic weights and will be smelting them into ingots next week.

I'll be casting the lead into 303 British rounds. I've heard there is a difference between the clip on and sticky weights so I have a few questions about this.

1) I'll be smelting the sticky weights into separate ingots from the clip on's. What can I do with these sticky weights down the road and how to I make them useful for casting into boolits
2) Can I cast the clip on weights directly into my .303B boolits or do I need to alloy the lead with something?
 
Make sure you slug the bore of the .303B rifle first and buy an appropriate mould. They can run from .310" to .316" or larger. The common .314" mould (Lyman 314299) isn't suitable for the really loose ones which may need a custom mould (I would recommend Accurate Molds in Salt Lake City). If you have an especially tight bore you could get a .312" mould. You can cut open a 00 buck (.330") shell if you need a lead ball to slug the bore and are totally lost on how to find some. Just make sure it's the cheap shotshells with bare lead shot and not the premium ones with copper or nickle plated shot.

You can use pure lead or hard lead for shotgun slugs. With softer lead the slugs will mushroom but with harder lead, because they're hollow, they generally fracture when they hit.
 
i seperate the stick ons and use only the clip ons for my .308...i dont seperate the zinc steel anymore either as it is a waste of time in my case, i keep the melting temp around 320 deg...my bullets are perfect.

As for alloying..i guess you can do it but i dont personally, with a good heat temper i get in the upper 20 range which is adequate for 1700-2000fps...
 
1. as said stick on is generally pure lead and good for black powder or shot/slugs etc.

2. certainly try casting with just the COWW (clip on wheel weights) but you may have to add some tin to make it fill out better in the molds. you can get tin from many places, plumbing solder, electronics solder (if it's none fluxed core solder), radiator repair shops sometimes sell drippings which is excess solder that drips off, pewter items which is mostly tin. i've gotten most of my tin from 95/5 solder which is 95% tin and pewter.
 
Thanks guys.

I was going to be bringing in the rifle I have it slugged - I had heard that before about the varying bore sizes. I didn't think about using a ball from a 00 buck shell. I have a few boxe of them so I may just do that and save the money on the gunsmith.
 
Lube barrel.
Tap slug through barrel with lengths of wood dowel and a hammer (I use a wood mallet).
Catch slug so it doesn't drop and deform.
Measure with a micrometer (a caliper can have an error up to +/-.002" so shouldn't be relied upon for this critical measurement).

If it's a Lee Enfield with 5-groove rifling it can be nearly impossible to measure accurately as opposite sides are groove on one and land on the other.
You want a mould that casts at least .001" larger than the slug. I've gone as high as .004" above bore diameter and haven't run into any issues.
I find with wheel weights and water quenching the bullets as they drop from the mould that most moulds cast .001" above their listed diameter.
My .314" mould drops .315" bullets which I put gas checks on and size down to .314" for my P14.
 
My bullet of choice for a half dozen of each ( Lee Enfields and Moisant Nagants) is an old Ideal 311299 which casts at 315 and is sized to 314. Bullet material is ww plus 2% tin and water quenched. Never had any leading with velocities up to 1900fps and accuracy usually comparable to jacketed loads. Cast is the way to go to be able to shoot these old rifles a lot more without having to mortgage the house. Less recoil, muzzle blast and bore wear as well.
 
LUTNIT said:
Lube barrel.
Tap slug through barrel with lengths of wood dowel and a hammer (I use a wood mallet).
Catch slug so it doesn't drop and deform.
Measure with a micrometer (a caliper can have an error up to +/-.002" so shouldn't be relied upon for this critical measurement).

If it's a Lee Enfield with 5-groove rifling it can be nearly impossible to measure accurately as opposite sides are groove on one and land on the other.
You want a mould that casts at least .001" larger than the slug. I've gone as high as .004" above bore diameter and haven't run into any issues.
I find with wheel weights and water quenching the bullets as they drop from the mould that most moulds cast .001" above their listed diameter.
My .314" mould drops .315" bullets which I put gas checks on and size down to .314" for my P14.
Click to expand...

It is an Enfield. Not sure how many grooves it has, but I'll find out when I slug it either tonight or tomorrow.
 
Id mix the clip on WW 50/50 with the stick on WW. I do this or mix in 50 pure or 50 range scrap(mostly pure) to extend the life on my clip on WW and get good accuracy from my 30-30 up to 45-70
 
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